David Hughes is the Daily Telegraph's chief leader writer. He has been covering British politics for 30 years.

Greg Barker warns that if we don’t pay for windmills in Africa we’ll end up in more wars

Greg Barker, the environment minister, has a provocative turn of phrase. Earlier this week he described wind farms as “wonderful and majestic” and said they had become tourist attractions in his Bexhill and Battle constituency. Today he trumped that by claiming that the UK will “pay the price in British lives” if we don’t spend £2 billion of taxpayer’s money (that’s £70 per household) on programmes to help developing countries switch to green energy.

How come? Barker fears that if we don’t stump up the cash, we will see more failed states like Eritrea, Somalia and Afghanistan – and that will lead to more military intervention by British forces: “And ultimately, we pay the price in British lives. Climate change isn’t the only reason for instability in the future, but it’s going to be a very aggravating factor, if we don’t play our part in stemming it.”

That seems a pretty tendentious argument. Carbon emissions from the most backward economies, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, are minuscule. A report published last year by Price Waterhouse Cooper put sub Saharan emissions at barely one ton per capita – the figure for the US is 20 tons. Wouldn’t western aid be better spent on economic development rather than ensuring that the populations of these countries continue to live in low-carbon poverty? It also smacks of moral blackmail – if we don’t hand over the billions we’ll have blood on our hands. Barker’s lurid language does no favours to a complex and important debate.